NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) – A New Haven church, where the leadership has been a family affair for decades, is celebrating 100 years of serving the community.

“I believe that strong families make for strong churches- and strong churches make for better communities,” said Beulah Heights Pentecostal Church Senior Pastor, Harold Brooks.

Senior Pastor Brooks said it’s that commitment to family and community that has made the church a foundation of the Dixwell community since 1923.

For most of those years, a member of the Brooks family has led the congregation. Pastor Brooks’s grandfather joined the church as bishop in 1950.

“He served Beulah Heights for 35 years,” Pastor Brooks explained.

He was followed by Pastor Brooks’s father, Bishop Theodore Brooks, who led the church for almost four decades.

The legacy continued with Harold and his brother Darryl co-pastoring after that. Pastor Brooks then became Senior Pastor when his brother left to lead a congregation in Waterbury.

“Finally I retired from the city to do this full time in 2021,” Pastor Brooks said.

This church has had an impact on this community over the decades in large part because of its community outreach in areas like education and housing.

Through its land development corporation, Beulah Heights is building a housing complex that will feature 65 units right across the street from the church.

Pastor Brooks said it all comes back to serving the community.

“We’ve done it through economic empowerment, homes, special programs, helping people with addiction, helping people coming out of prison and giving them some sort of hope and new start in life,” Pastor Brooks said.